Old Town Cartagena, Colombia

Looking out of our hostel.

It's the same day but now we're away from the crowded mud volcano and back in Cartagena. Strolling the streets of Old Town Cartagena. we reverse the order of the walking tour of Old Town soaking up the Colonial style architecture. As we walked aruond, one of the things that we agreed on was that other countries have local fruits and juice stands at every other corner. So We picked up these little fruits (The name escapes me) but they're green, on little branches, and they remind me of lychee. You crack the brittle skin with your teeth to expose the meat and suck it out and spit out the seed that unfortunately takes up most of the space.

Steph standing in a typical Colonial alley way

The colors stand out so well, I couldn't but help make Steph stand still. We followed the path but didn't really go into any of the museums or churches. Towards the end we gave up following the path because our stomaches dictated we search for food. I don't remember what logic decided this but we ended up just eating cheese bread and Arepas. A ritual we soon stopped. Even if we were't happy with the food, the drinks were quite satisfying. Before we left to visit the Volcano we walked down the alley way where we saw maybe twenty people preparing their juice carts. One guy slicing up fruits and pouring them into a this giant fish tank of juice, one guy squeezing limes so fast it looked like someone using a switch blade, and another guy chipping away at ice blocks the size of shoe boxes.

Sitting on the wall built by the Spaniards.


As you do the walking tour you see parts of the Las Murallas which is this thick wall built around the port of Cartagena to protect it from pirates and the like. Spaniards would store the riches they would steal from the indigenous people at this port. But after the wall came up it became a cornerstone for the Spaniards allowing them to influence Colombia.

Just another alley way [Photo credit: Steph]

Enjoying the colors of Cartagena